Ball State opens new study abroad program in
Costa Rica
By Andrea Zeek
Ball State University's newest study abroad
program, the Costa Rica Centre, is
recruiting for the Spring Semester.
Jim Coffin, director of the Rinker Center
for International Programs, said the
decision to start a center in Costa Rica
stemmed from the university's existing
centera programs in London and Australia,
which are the most popular study abroad
options.
"We wanted a companion piece that would be
located in another area of the world,"
Coffin said. "One that would give students
the chance to take another set of subjects
and, for those who wanted to, have
home-stays."
Costa Rica, a country located in Central
America, is home to 850-recorded species of
animals and more than 10,000 different kinds
of plants, making it one of the world's most
biodiverse ecosystems, according to Lonely
Planet's travel Web site.
At the Costa Rica Centre, Coffin said
students would have the opportunity to take
courses in natural resources, biology,
indigenous studies, history, anthropology
and various levels of conversational and
written Spanish. Professors from the
University of San José in Costa Rica and a
program director from Ball State will teach
students in classrooms located at the
Tirimbina Rainforest Center, he said.
Norman Marín Caldéron, an associate
professor of Spanish at Ball State, said he
would be the Costa Rica Centre's first
director this spring. He will be teaching
Costa Rican Life and Culture and
conversational Spanish for all speaking
levels.
Marín Caldéron said learning about the
environment and resource management while
living in Costa Rica will give students an
advantage.
"In Muncie, they can study the theoretical
things, but never the way they can if they
see it in person," he said.
Coffin said students would also have the
option to take an online course and/or an
independent study with a Ball State
professor.
The people at the Tirimbina Rainforest
Center, especially CEO Carlos Chavarria,
have been instrumental in the creation of
the Costa Rica Centre, Coffin said. In
October 2007, Chavarria came to Ball State
to help Coffin set up a three-week field
study in Costa Rica for Winter Break
2008-09.
"Carlos [Chavarria] did such a good job
providing us logistics that I then discussed
with him the possibility of creating a
semester-long program," Coffin said.
Junior geography major Andy Goldblatt, who
went on the field study to Costa Rica, said
he spent three nights and two days at
Tirimbina. He said the center's staff was
friendly and knowledgeable, its classroom
facilities were air-conditioned and equipped
with technology, such as projector screens,
and it was surrounded by rainforest.
"It's a bit more rugged," Goldblatt said.
"You're in the rainforest even though there
are nice facilities."
Goldblatt said he would like to go back to
Costa Rica, but can't fit it into his
schedule because of the classes he needs to
take for his major.
"If that weren't stopping me, I would
seriously consider doing that for a full
semester," he said.
Coffin said the Costa Rica Centre is
different from the three-week field study
and other Centre programs because students
will be living with host families.
"We think Costa Rica will be one of our most
immersive Centre programs because students
just get a really up-close-and-personal
perspective on that country," he said.
Students will live with bilingual Costa
Rican families in the town of La Virgen,
which is about an hour north of San José,
Costa Rica's capital, Coffin said. Students
will be placed with a family based on mutual
interests and how their majors relate to
their host parents' careers, he said.
Host families will cook for the students, do
their laundry and take them to "places of
cultural interest," Coffin said. Students
will also go on weekend field trips with
their fellow Ball State students, he said.
Marín Caldéron said although he is from
Costa Rica and goes back to visit family
about once a year, he has never been to La
Virgen or the Tirimbina center.
"It's more for biologists and tourists, so
now I can be there as a director, and I can
learn more about my country," he said. "I'm
very happy and excited because I'm going to
be living in a rainforest in my home country
and learning new things."
Marín Caldéron said he is most excited for
students to experience a new way of life in
Costa Rica.
"They are going to learn about a new culture
and they are going to learn about life
itself because in South America, especially
in Costa Rica, we see life differently," he
said.
Life in Costa Rica is not as much about
buying things and accumulating wealth as it
is in the United States, he said.
"In Costa Rica I think we are a very poor
country in the sense of money," Marín
Caldéron said. "We are rich in resources and
natural resources, but life is not like
buying things all the time, so we have
different ways to enjoy life, different ways
to have fun. Students are going to learn a
new way of having fun; it is about sharing,
it's about being with friends and it's about
being creative."
Coffin said the Costa Rica Centre's $10,200
price tag is the most affordable of the
three Centre programs. The price covers the
cost of 12 hours of tuition, airfare,
housing, food and field trips, he said. |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
